Oil applicator device for wheels and/or rails



July 20, 1965 KlYoTAKA HIRATA 3,1958

OIL APPLICATOR DEVIGE FOR WHEELS AND/OR RAILS Filed Feb. 12, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet l oIL APPLIcAToR DEVICE FOR wHEELs AND/OR RAILs Filed Feb. 12, 1965 July 20, 1965 KxYoTAKA HlRATA 4 Sheets-Sheet 2A oIL APPLIcAx'oR DEvIoE Fon wHEELs AND/OR RAILs Filed Feb. 12, 1963 July 20, 1965 KlYoTAKA HIRATA 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 July 20, 1965 KIYOTAKA HIRATA OIL APPLICATOR DEVIGE FOR WHEELS AND/OR RAILS Filed Feb. 12, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR mmm 11m4 m United States Patent O 3,1%,581 OIL APPLXCATR DE'VECE FR Wl'lllll AND/OR RAlS Kiyotaira His-ata, 9-11 ll-chorne, Karyntia-clio, Takamatsn-shi, lagawa-ken, Japan i Filed Feb. E2, 1963, Ser. No. 257,897 Clairns pifiorisy, application apan, Feb. 14, 1%2, 37/5338 Ciairns. (Cl. lli--3) The present invention relates to and in improvements on devices for applying lubricant oil onto Wheels and/or rails with the object of reducing abrasion on the Wheels -and rails which may develop due to frictional contact between the two cooperatin g members, and more particularly to an oil applicator device suitable for use in conjunction with slowly rotated Wheels such as those of Wheeled cranes and the like.

One object of the present invention is to provide an oil applicator device for a wheel and/or rail of the type in which a pumping section is provided within an oil supply mechanism and said pumping section is designed to function by the utilization of rotational movement of the Wheels whereby the oil is supplied to the rail and/ or wheel in an amount which is in proportion to the rotational rate of said Wheel.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an oil applicator device for the wheel and/or rail of the type in which said pumping section is designed to easily control the oil supply therefrom by the adjustment of said pumping section.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an oil applicator device for said wheel and/or rail of the type in which an adjustment to control the amount of oil supplied can be easily and simply performed with accuracy.

Still other objects, features and attendant advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detailed description of preferred ernbodiments constructed in accordance with the principle of the present invention.

ln order that the present invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, drawings are appended herewith illustrating the embodiments thereof and Wherein:

PIG. 1 is a side elevatonal view of a first embodiment of the present invention in which two oil applicator units are employed for applying lubricant oil against two opposite upper edges of a rail, and which shows a portion thereof in section;

FlG. 2 is a side elevational view of only one oil applica tor unit showing a portion thereof in section;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of a part of said applicator unit as shown in PIG. 2;

PIG. 4 is an end elevational view of said oil applicator unit showing a portion thereof in section; and

FTG. 5 is a second embodirnent of the present invention which is adapted to apply lubricant oil onto the top surface of a rail, and which also shows a portion thereof in section.

Now, referring to the figures in the drawings, especially to PIG. l, in which letter symbol A designates an oil reservoir which is adapted to be mounted on a suitable part of the body of a wheeled crane or the like, said part being selected at a somewhat upper portion of said body. B are oil applicator units and their oil applicator annuluses are designed to apply lubricant oil onto a rail and/or wheel from their peripheral edges which are adapted to frictionally contact said rail and/ or wheel. Said oil reservoir A comprises a lid 1 covering its top, a Vertical liquid level gauge 2 disposed adjacent to the front wall thereof,

and an upright cylindrical filter means 3 inwardly projecting from the bottom wall thereof. Such an oil reservoir A is secured to a suitable part a of a moving body such as a wheel body by means of fitting bars 4 extending outwardly from the rear wall of said reservoir A and the cooperating fastening nuts 5. The outer end of said cylindrical filter means 3 is connected through a valve 6 with an oil supply pipe 7.

Each oil applicator unit B has a center annulus member 8 comprising a pumping device therein (FIG. 3) and an oil applicator annulus 9 clisposed in the outer periphery of said center annulus 8. The oil applicator annulus 9 is preferably formed of a material which has an oil resisting and some degree of elastic property, for instance, such as Synthetic resin. The peripheral edge 9' of the oil applicator annulus 9 has an arc-shaped idented portion and a groove 9 is formed inwardly extending from the outer edge of said indented portion 9'. The groove 9 is connected through an oil bore 1d' With said purnping device and the interior of said groove 9 is filled With an oil absorbing' material 11 which is of spongy form made of Synthetic rubber or felt and said oil absorbing material ll is adapted to be impregnated with lubricant oil. Against one side or both sides of said oil applicator annulus 9 a rigid holding plate 12 such as a metallic plate is applied. The applicator annulus 9 and holding plate 12 are mounted by means of a cylindrical member 14 disposed around an oil supply axle pipe 13 and ball bearings 15 and 15' together With an abutment member 16 and said center annulus member 8. A cover member 17 is disposed at the fore end of said axle pipe 13 covering said end portion and said center annulus 8 is sandwiched between said cover member 17 and abutment member 16, these members being rigidly held together by means of clamping bolts 1.8.

An oil seal 19 is provided on said oil supply axle pipe 13 Within the abutment member 16 in order to prevent lubricant oil from leaking out of the space between cylindrical member 14 and abutment member 16. A cam ring Elf' is disposed against the inner end surface of the cylindrical member 142- and said cam ring 2d is secured by means of a pin 21 to said axle pipe 13'. An annular cam 22 is disposed against the outer side of said cam ring 29 and held against said inner surface of the cylindrical member 14 in such a manner that the annular cam 22 is free to rotate about the axle pipe 13 between the ball bearings 15 and 15'. A nut 23 is threaded on the fore end of said axle pipe 13 to hold the parts in place. The center annuius member is provided with a cylinder' 24 therein and a piston 25 of an oil supply pump is provided With one end thereof in contact with said annular cam 22, said piston 25 being inserted within said center annulus 8 so as to freely move in the radial direction With respect to axle 13 and being urged against the cam surface of annular cam 22 by means of a spring 26. A spherical valve 27 is disposed on the outer side of said cylinder 24 and said spherical valve 27 is urged against its valve seat 3b' by means of another spring 28. A transverse oil bore 3% is provided in said center annulus 8 connecting with an oil bore 29 formed in said abutment member 16 so that pumping action by forward-rearward movement of said piston 25 feeds the oil supplied from the oil supply axle pipe 13 into the oil absorbing material 11 of the oil applicator annulus 9, the oil forced out of the cylinder 2.4 being guided through an annular guide groove 8' formed' around the center annulus member 8 'into the oil bore ftl of the oil applicator annulus 9.

The cylindrical member 14 adjacent to the annular cam 22 has one end extending outwardly from the oil appiicator unit B and to saidouter end' an Operating handle 31 is secured, and said handle 31 is fixed on said is d member 14 by means of a set screw 31'. Said handle 31 is designed to be operated from outside so as to change the position of the projecting portion of the cam. In other words, in case the projecting position of the eccentric portion of the annular cam 22 is in the same direction as the projecting portion of the cam ring 20, the forward and rearward movement of the piston '25 is greater whilst in case the directions of the projecting regions of both said cam-s are opposed t'o each other, the movement distance of the piston 25 is smaller. When a graduated plate 13a is provided on the oil supply axle pipe 13, the oil supply amount can be simply controlled by the utilization of the handle 31 as an index, and accordingly the adjustment of oil amount is quite simple. When the set screw 31a and consequently the cylindrical member 14 are tightened, the handle 31 is held in position.

The oil supply aXial pipe 13 has a projecting arm 32 pivotally mounted on a supporting member 33 by means of a supporting shaft 34, said supporting member 33 being secured to a suitable part b of the wheeled body. Furthermore, a supporting arm 35 is connected with said arm 32 and a projecting pin 35' is inserted into each elongated slot 33' of the supporting member 32 so that said supporting arm 35 may be pulled to one direction by means of a spring 36 thereby the arc-shape surface 9' of the oil applicator annulus 9 is always urged against one upper edge of 'a rail c. And a flexible pipe 38 is connected by means of a joint 37 with the upper end of said oil supply axle pipe 13 and the other end of said axle pipe 13 is communicated through a three-way pipe 39 with an oil feed pipe 7.

With the above construction, when the wheeled body moves through the rolling of its wheels, each oil applicator unit B rotates by its frictional contact with the rail, and since the piston 25 which is outwardly urged by the annular cam 22 of the oil supply axle pipe 13 moves forwardly and backwardly in accordance with its cam surface's contact positions, the forward nad backward movement` of said piston 25 actuates the spherical Valve 27 thereby to carry out pumping operation, and accordingly, the oil within the oil reservoir A mounted on a desired position on the wheeled body passes through the fore end -of the oil supply axle pipe 13, the space between the ball bearings 15 and 15' and the oil bore 29 of the abutment member 16 into the cylinder 24 whereupon the pumped oil pushes open the spherical valve 27 and fiows into the oil bore of the oil applicator annulus 9 to penetrate into the oil absorbing member 11 whereby the oil is applied onto each upper edge of the rail c through the rotation of the oil applicator unit B.

Accordingly, even when the Wheels are rolling at a low rate, a desired amount of oil can be always applied onto said edge portions of the rail, and the movement distance of the piston 25 can be varied by turning the cylindrical cam from outside. And accordingly, it is advantageous that the oil supply amount can be easily controlled as desired.

FIG. 1 illustrates the case in which two of such an oil applicator unit are employed and lubricant oil is applied simultaneously onto both the upper edges of a rail whilst FIG. 5 illustrates the case in which only one applicator unit is employed and lubricant oil is applied onto the upper surface of a rail. The present invention will be now explained referring to FIG. 5.

In this figure, an oil applicator unit B' comprises a larger diameter center annulus member 8a and a larger diameter oil applicator annulus 9a and the cross section of said oil applicator annulus 9a is formed almost straight so as to conform with the upper surface of the rail c and the above component parts are firmly sandwiched between a pair of holding plates 16a and 16b. The assembly is rotatively mounted, through a cylindrical member 14, ball bearings a and 15b, on an oil supply axle pipe 13a. The oil supply axial pipe 13a has a cam ring 20 secured thereto by means of a pin 21 and an annular cam 22 is disposed around said cam ring 20 which is adapted to be secured to a cylindrical member 14 having a handle 31 at one end thereof. Said center annulus 8a has a piston 25 which is adapted to move in the transverse direction with respect to the oil supply axle pipe 13a by the action of the cam while being pressed into contact with cam 22 by means of a spring. Said center annulus 8 also has a spherical valve 27, and when the oil applicator unit B' rotates, the lubricant oil is guided from the oil bore 13' of the oilV supply axle pipe 13a, through a bore 14' formed on the cylindrical body 14 and an oil bore 29' yformed on the holding plate 16h into the cylinder provided with the piston 25 therein, and then, by the pumping action, the oil is supplied through the oil guiding groove 8' into the oil absorbing material members 11 disposed within the oil applicator annulus 9a.

The oil applicator B' is adapted to be elastically secured to a suitable part b' of the wheeled body, the part b' has two depending cylindrical supporting members 40 and 41 and 'into which -supporting bars 42, 43 are respectively inserted, and the upper ends of the bars 42 and 43 are held in position by nuts 45, 45. The supporting bars 42 and 43 are always downwardly pushed by Springs 44, 44 disposed within said cylindrical supporting members 40 and the fore ends of the supporting bars are secured to a common oil supply axle pipe 13a having the oil applicator unit B' secured thereto. Accordingly, when the wheeled body vibrates, the oil applicator unit B' moves up and down a suitable amount and has the tendency to make fritcional contact with the upper surface of the rail.

The oil supply axle pipe 13a is connected through a joint 37 with a fiexible pipe 7 and in turn through a valve 6 with an oil reservoir A in the same Way as described in connection with the embodiment of FIG. 1, and said oil reservoir is provided with a lid 1 on its top and a liquid level gauge 2 disposed adjacent to the front Wall thereof. The thus formed oil reservoir tank A is secured to a suitable part a of the car body by means of clamping bolts 4 which project outwardly from the rear Vwall thereof and nuts 5.

As understood from the foregoing, the device according to the present invention is so designed that the combined oil supply axle and pipe has a cam secured thereto and a rotary pumping section disposed around said cam thereby Vthe oil within said axle Vpipe is gradually supplied into the oil absorbing material members disposed within said oil applicator annulus, and accordingly, even in case of slowly rotating Wheels such as those of a crane and the like which are not subjected to centrifugal force, a desired amount of oil can be oozed out from the appliiator annulus and fu-rthermore, since the oil applicator annulus is p-ressed by the rigid holding plates, its indented surface can always make an accurate frictional contact with the rail, and there will be no uneven oil distribution produced on the oil applied surface. i

In the foregoing, the description has been applied in conjunction with Vthe cases in which oil is applied onto' rails, but the same principle can be applied to wheels with the same effect. And instead of filling members 11 with the oil absorbing material, the oil applicator annulus 9 may -be provided with narrow notches or the cross section of said n-otohes may be of zigza'g Shape so that the fiow of oil can be controlled. V

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of the present invention which consists of the matter shown and described herein and set forth in the appended clams.

What I claim is:

1. An oil applicator device for Wheels and/ or rails comprising in combination,

an oil supply pipe having one end connected to a source of oil and the other end forming a hollow axle, annular cam means and means for retaining the same in stationary position on the outer periphery of the axle portion, of said oil supply pipe,

a center annulus member surrounding said cam means and an oil-applying annulus surrounding said center annulus member,

means for rotatably mounting the center annulus and the oil applying annulus on said axle,

a pumping device disposed in said center annulus member including a cylinder and a piston therefor disposed for forward and backward movement in the radial direction With respect to said axle portion and annulus,

said pumping device having inlet connection with said oil supply pipe and outlet means extending toward the periphery of said center annulus,

said cam means having a cam surface constructed to contact and move said piston in said radial direction upon rotation of said center annulus,

oil dispensing means in the peripheral edge of said oil applying annulus, and

valve means connecting the outlet of said pumping device to the oil dispensing means of said oil applying annulus.

2. An oil applicator device as claimed in claim l wherein said annular cam means comprises inner and outer annular cams,

each of said inner and outer annular cam means having a projecting region which is eccentric with respect to said axle portion of the oil supply pipe,

one of said annular cams being fixed with respect to the axle portion of said oil supply pipe,

the other of said annular cams being mounted to rotate about said first rnentioned annular cam,

cylindrical means on said axle portion adapted to retain said cam which is not fixed to the axle portion in any one of a multiplicity of fixed positions with respect to the fixed annular cam whereby the range of radial movement of said piston can be controlled by adjusting the position of said cylindrical means and said rotatable annular cam with respect to fixed annular cam.

3. An oil applicator device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said oil dispensing means in the peripheral edge of said oil applying annulus includes an oil absorbing material.

4. An oil applicator device as clairned in claim 1, Wher-ein said oil applying annulus has an annular concavc indenta'tion adapted to =fit lcloscly about an upper edge portion of a rail.

5. An oil applicator device as clairned in claim 1, wherein said annular cam means has a cam surface adapted to move said piston radially outward, and including spring means adapted to urge said piston to contact said cam means,

said valve means including a spherical valve positioned adjacent the Outlet of said pump,

a valve seat formed at the end of said pump outlet,

spring means adapted to normally urge said spherical valve against the valve seat of said Outlet.

6. An oil applying device for rails comprising an oil supply tank, at least two oil applicator units positioned to apply oil to the opposite edges of a rail,

branched line means for feeding oil from said tank to each of said applicator units,

each of said branched line means including a flexible pipe section intermediate between the applicator unit and the branch of said line,

a first connector means for attaching said oil supply tank to a vehicle Operating on said track,

a second connector means to pivotally attach the ends of the branch lines beyond the fiexible section to another .and lower port'ion of said vehicle to position said applicators for contact with said rail,

spring and lever means between said applicator units -and said second connector means to rele'asably press said :applicator units against .the edges of said rail.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED ST ATES PATENTS 1,701,506 2/29 Reid 184-3 2,537,851 1/51 Pannier 101-367 FOREIGN PATENTS 654,987 12/28 France. 1,245,316 9/60 France.

LAVERNE D. GEIGER, Primary Examner.

; MILTON KAUFMAN, Examn'er. o 

6. AN OIL APPLYING DEVICE FOR RAILS COMPRISING AN OIL SUPPLY TANK, AT LEAST TWO OIL APPLICATOR UNITS POSITIONED TO APPLY OIL TO THE OPPOSITE EDGES OF A RAIL, BRANCHED LINE MEANS FOR FEEDING OIL FROM SAID TANK TO EACH OF SAID APPLICATOR UNITS, EACH OF SAID BRANCHED LINE MEANS INCLUDING A FLEXIBLE PIPE SECTION INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN THE APPLICATOR UNIT AND THE BRANCH OF SAID LINE, A FIRT CONNECTOR MEANS FOR ATTACHING SAID OIL SUPPLY TANK TO A VEHICLE OPERATING ON SAID TRACK, A SECOND CONNECTOR MEANS TO PIVOTALLY ATTACH THE ENDS OF THE BRANCH LINES BEYOND THE FLEXIBLE SECTION TO ANOTHER AND LOWER PORTION OF SAID VEHICLE TO POSITION SAID APPLICATORS FOR CONTACT WITH SAID RAIL, SPRING AND LEVER MEANS BETWEEN SAID APPLICATOR UNITS AND SAID SECOND CONNECTOR MEANS TO RELEASABLY PRESS SAID APPLICATOR UNITS AGAINST THE EDGES OF SAID RAIL. 